Christians, we have our own dialect. When we use it with unbelievers, they may not understand what we're saying. Or worse, they may misunderstand.
It's easiest to see this kind of insider language at work. Every industry has its own jargon. We have acronyms, unique terms, and regular words given a special usage; they make communication efficient. My field has plenty of each, including standard medical terms used in nonstandard ways. And when we get visitors, many of my coworkers will just jabber jargon at them. You see their eyes glaze over in short order: What is an ITV or a PTV? Isocenter seems like a word I should be able to figure out, but ... I'm not. Bolus? I don't think that word means what you think it means. Our visitors need someone to explain everything using simple English. They still might not quite follow everything, but they'll have a better chance.
We run into the same problem when we talk about our faith with non-Christians. Terms that are perfectly clear to us may be meaningless to them or even have a meaning different from ours.
The solution is to code-switch. Encyclopedia Britannica describes code-switching as "the process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting." I believe it was originally used to refer a member of a minority group shifting their language when around people from the majority group, but the term is now used more generally.
Teenagers code-switch all the time. They use language at school they know they'd better not use in from of their mothers. They also use slang that is complete nonsense to their parents. Sometimes people do it automatically, sometimes intentionally.
When we speak about our beliefs with non-Christians, we need to do it intentionally. Why? Let's look at some examples.
I once had a pastor who talked about praying for "travelling mercies." I grew up in the South, but I'd never heard that term before. Still, I was able to figure out what he meant. The thing is, this was part of his standard gospel presentation. So while he's trying to explain how to ask Jesus into your heart, they may be trying to figure out what "travelling mercies" means. It doesn't take that much longer to say "pray for safe travel".
Which brings up another example: We know what it means to "ask Jesus into your heart." But if you didn't grow up in or near evangelical culture, you might not. So asking a stranger if they've ever asked Jesus into their heart may not make any more sense than asking them if they've ever blurbed their flurbalurb.
Unfortunately, our culture has a very skewed idea of what "belief" and "faith" mean. For non-Christians and, sadly, even many Christians a "belief" is an idea you hold onto with no evidence or even in spite of contrary evidence. "Faith" is acting like something you know to be false is true — "believing what you know ain't so".
So what do they hear when someone says, "My faith got me through"? Something like, "I closed my eyes and wished until the bad stuff passed."
Instead of these terms our culture misunderstands, I suggest we use plain English. We shouldn't talk about our "beliefs" but our convictions — those things we are convinced are true. Instead of "believe", we can use trust: Trust in the death of Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and make you right with God. Rather than telling people "my faith will get me through", we can let them know "I can persevere because I know God is in control, and he said he'll never leave me nor forsake me."
We should also be thoughtful about any theological terms we use. "Atonement" is not an everyday word anymore. "Autograph" doesn't mean the same thing to the general culture as it does in biblical studies. "The doctrines of grace" isn't something even most Protestants can explain. Using theological terms can be like using obscure medical terms. Do you know anyone who's had an osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis?
These are just a few examples, but I hope the idea is clear. Old Southernisms and other regional terms may be pretty opaque to people who grew up in another place or another time. Christianese terms may mean nothing or the wrong thing to the people around us. Before we talk about our faith, we need to think about how outsiders may perceive the words we use. We need to be clear; we want them to understand. Because the whole point of talking about our faith is to point people to the hope offered them in Christ Jesus.
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